FLAG to restore internet services in next 6-7 days

Published: Wednesday, February 6, 2008, 20:32 [IST]

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New Delhi, Feb 6 (UNI) The two undersea cables owned by FLAG telecom, a subsidiary of Reliance Communications, that were recently damaged and distrupted internet services across Asia and West Asia, will be restored in the next 6-7 days.

The work on the first FLAG Europe-Asia cable which was damaged on January 30, off Alexandria in Egypt, is being executed by a repair ship loaded with spares at the site.

FLAG has already received necessary permits to commence work from the Egyptian authorities, company sources said.

It has completed 100 per cent restoration of services for enterprise customers and alternative route for customers who had requsted for ad-hoc connections.

The FALCON cable, which was cut on February 1, was damaged 56 kms off Dubai between UAE and Oman and the FLAG repair team is is expected to complete works in the next 3-4 days.

Earlier, bad weather had prevented a repair ship from setting off to mend one of three broken undersea cables providing Internet services to parts of the Gulf and Asia.

Undersea cable connections were initially disrupted off Egypt's northern coast on last Wednesday, affecting Internet access in the Gulf region and south Asia, and forcing service providers to re-route traffic.

The initial breaches were in segments of two intercontinental cables known as SEA-ME-WE-4 and FLAG Europe-Asia.

More than 95 per cent of such telecoms and data traffic are carried by submarine cables, and the rest by satellite.

A recent such disruption was in December 2006, when an earthquake broke nine submarine cables between Taiwan and the Philippines, cutting connections between southeast Asia and the rest of the world.